AP-NORC Poll highlights Age perception for Biden, contrasting issues for Trump

Americans actually agree on something in this time of raw discord: Joe Biden is too old to be an effective president in a second term. Only a few years his junior, Donald Trump raises strikingly less concern about his age. But they have plenty of other problems with Trump, who at least for now far outdistances his rivals for the Republican nomination despite his multiple criminal indictments.

Never mind his advanced years — if anything, some say, the 77-year-old ought to grow up. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds much of the public oddly united in sizing up the one trait Biden cannot change. The president has taken to raising the age issue himself, with wisecracks, as if trying to relax his audiences about his 80 trips around the sun. Age discrimination may be banned in the workplace but the president’s employers — the people — aren’t shy about their bias.

In the poll, fully 77% said Biden is too old to be effective for four more years. Not only do 89% of Republicans say that, so do 69% of Democrats. That view is held across age groups, not just by young people, though older Democrats specifically are more supportive of his 2024 bid.

In contrast, about half of U.S. adults say Trump is too old for the office, and here the familiar partisan divide emerges — Democrats are far more likely to disqualify Trump by age than are Republicans. What’s clear from the poll is that Americans are saying out with the old and in with the young, or at least younger. Democrats, Republicans and independents want to sweep a broad broom through the halls of power, imposing age limits on the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court. In all about two-thirds of U.S. adults back an age ceiling on candidates for president and Congress and a mandatory retirement age for justices.

Specifically, 67% favor requiring Supreme Court justices to retire by a certain age, 68% support age ceilings for candidates for House and Senate, and 66% support age ceilings for candidates for president. With elders mostly running the show and the Constitution to contend with, don’t expect that to happen any time soon.

Even so, the survey suggests lots of people across political lines are open to seeing a younger face, a fresher one, or both, capture the public imagination. Among them is Noah Burden, a 28-year-old communications consultant in Alexandria, Virginia. Despite a clear preference for Biden over Trump, he wishes the top contenders for the presidency were closer to his generation. Similarly, Greg Pack, 62, a past and possibly future Trump voter in Ardmore, Oklahoma, wishes Biden and Trump would both move along.

“Just watching and listening to Biden it’s pretty self-evident he is not what he was,” said Pack, a registered nurse. Trump? “He is a lot sharper but at the end of his term, who knows?” Pack said, contemplating January 2029. “I’m just ready for someone younger.” He’s had about enough of a man who is “all about himself” and is “wearing his indictments like a badge of honor,” but if that’s who it takes to defeat Biden, so be it.

Biden’s Perceived Age and Attributes:

• 26% mentioned Biden’s age.
• 15% used words like “slow” or “confused.”
• 28% of Democrats mentioned his age.
• Democrats mixed age mentions with positive terms.
• Only 3% used “confused” as the first word.
• One Republican used “potato.”
• Some approval but also “senile” mention.

Trump’s Perceived Age and Attributes

• Only 1% mentioned Trump’s age.
• 3% used “confused” as the first word.
• 15% described him as “corrupt” or “crooked.”
• 11% used negative terms like “bad.”
• 8% called him “liar” or “dishonest.”
• 8% used positive terms like “good.